The Littlest Victor, a Hunger Games story
by Technomad
Summary: What if Peeta and Thresh had both died early on in the Games, and Katniss had kept Rue alive to the end?  Katniss faces a terrible choice when all the other Tributes are finally dead...


The Littlest Victor

A _Hunger Games_ fanfiction

by Technomad

Katniss Everdeen dropped to her knees, gasping and panting for air. Beside her, Cato gasped, shuddered, and went very still, his eyes rolling back in his head. The arrows she had shot into him quivered as he died.

Rue stared at him, wide-eyed. Katniss managed to give her a smile; without Rue's well-placed rock catching him in the back of the head as he charged toward Katniss, he might have killed her before her arrows killed him. In the distance, the cannon announcing a Tribute's death fired.

"That's all there is, Katniss…except us, right?"

Katniss looked at Rue, struggling to keep her eyes focussed. The last few fights had really taken a lot out of her. "No, Rue. There's one more out there. She's really elusive, but she'll have to come out now. Let's go down by the Cornucopia. Wait for her in the open."

Trustingly, Rue fell in behind Katniss as they headed on down the trail. Katniss made sure to have her bow ready with an arrow nocked, as she scanned the woods around them for possible dangers. Even if most of the Tributes were dead, there were always nasty surprises in the Arena. Muttations came in quite a few varieties.

After a few minutes, they got to the open area where the Cornucopia stood. A little way away, the remains of the Career Tributes' food stash still smoldered from the effects of Katniss' attack. Rue looked around, her eyes big.

"Both our district partners died out here, didn't they, Katniss?"

Katniss nodded. Peeta had died first; he'd been caught in the scrum at the Cornucopia by Glimmer, the lovely, deadly Career girl from District 1. She had efficiently opened his throat from behind with a knife, leaving him to bleed to death as she snatched the supplies he'd risked his life for out of his hands. Katniss had watched from the edge of the woods. Having to see a boy she knew killed made what she later did to Glimmer…dropping a tracker-jacker nest on her, enraging the insects into stinging her to death…much easier. She just wished that the other Careers had died then; it would have made the rest of the Games much easier.

Thresh had gone down later; he and Clove had killed each other, Katniss thought. At least there had been two cannons, and their pictures had been projected in the sky that evening right after each other. Thresh had been much bigger, but Clove had been a Career; she was from the same district as Cato, and, like him, had benefited from the training her wealthy District was able to give those who were expected to volunteer for the Hunger Games. Absently, Katniss wished she'd been able to see that fight.

Straining every muscle, Katniss managed to scramble up on top of the Cornucopia, and reached down to help the much smaller Rue; the younger girl couldn't reach up far enough to get a good handhold. On top of the Cornucopia, they were safe from most muttations, Katniss hoped.

"So…who's the other Tribute, Katniss? That girl from District 5…the redhead?" Rue looked around them at the surrounding woods. "I haven't seen her since the beginning of the Games. She's really hard to find when she doesn't want to be found, isn't she?"

Katniss gave Rue a smile. "She's hard to find…but I did find her. You were asleep when they projected her face. She fell foul of a snare, and the Careers caught her before she could get away."

"Then who?" Rue scrunched up her face, thinking. "Near as I can count, we two are the only ones left." She gave Katniss a long, long look…then leaned back, stretching out her neck and closing her eyes, submitting to death. "I know you're trying to make it easy on me, Katniss. I forgive you. You've got your baby sister to get back to. Just…" she gulped, fear thickening her voice despite all she could do… "just make it quick, _please_?"

"Oh, I will. Quick as can be." Katniss reached into her pocket. "Let me be the first to congratulate you on being the youngest winner of the Hunger Games in history. Congratulations…victor!"

Rue's eyes snapped open, and her jaw dropped in utter shock. "Katniss! What in the world…" She saw what Katniss had had in her pocket. A handful of dark-colored berries. "Is that nightlock?" Then realization flooded her mind. "Katniss! No! No! Oh, please, NO!"

Before Rue could do anything, Katniss raised a berry to her mouth. "Rue…I volunteered as a Tribute to save my little sister. She's just about your age and size. I couldn't live with myself if I killed you. Why do you think I took such trouble about keeping you alive?"

Rue stared, paralyzed by sheer horror, as Katniss put the berry in her mouth and swallowed. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed, slumping backward and falling off the Cornucopia. Her last expression was a smile.

The cannon's roar, Claudius Templesmith's announcement of her victory…Rue never remembered those. When the Peacekeepers came to collect Katniss' body, she was clinging to it, crying and screaming at the top of her lungs for Katniss to wake up, to get up, to stop it, to please, please, _please_ not be dead. It took three full-grown Peacekeepers to pry her away from Katniss, and she struggled and shrieked until she was sedated.

OOO

The ceremonies and celebrations following the Hunger Games' conclusion were, in the considered opinion of the Powers that Were, a flop. Their Victor was easily the youngest in the Games' history, but she moved through the next days like an automaton. Her expression was frozen, and her eyes…nobody liked looking into her eyes. Well-meaning people crowded close to congratulate her, only to recoil when they got close enough to see what her eyes were like. Even President Snow, the coolest of all cool hands, wouldn't look into her eyes as he placed the golden crown of victory on her head. It was a little too large, and slipped down farther than it was supposed to.

Only once did her sedative-granted composure break. She was on television, being interviewed by Caesar Flickerman, when he asked her: "And what would you say to Katniss, if you could say anything to her?"

She had answered his previous questions in a strained, polite monotone, but that one got through. Rue suddenly gave Caesar a penetrating stare, and said, in a low voice: "I don't _know_ what I'd say to her. What _can_ you say to someone who laid down her life so that you could live?" Then she broke down in a flood of tears, and before anybody had the wit to turn the cameras away, all of Panem saw Caesar Flickerman holding Rue close, rocking her and crooning to her as though she were his own daughter.

Mercifully, that was on the last day of her Capitol stay, and the next morning saw her on the train back to District 11. She stared out the window as the Capitol's gaudy, colorful buildings went by, faster and faster, but did not seem to be seeing them at all. The people gathered to see her off waved tentatively as the train began to move, before turning and leaving the station, looking sheepish and ashamed.

OOO

Some months later, an unusual event occurred in District 12. A rare passenger train pulled into their station, and a single passenger got out. She was a tiny girl, not yet thirteen, but she walked fearlessly down the street, looking neither to left nor to right.

A Peacekeeper came up to her. "Excuse me, Miss, but are you lost? You don't look like you're from around here…" Then he saw her eyes, and drew back, shuddering. In a much more respectful tone, he asked: "Do you need any assistance, Miss? May I be of service to you?"

"Yes. Show me the way to the Everdeens' place, please."

Mrs. Everdeen was used to knocks at the door at all hours. Sickness and injury respected no schedules, and she had re-dedicated herself to healing since Katniss' death. After seeing her older daughter first volunteer to replace her younger sister at the Reaping, and then deliberately sacrifice her life so that a younger girl could go home to her family, the Everdeens had been taken under District 12's wing. People with gardens donated vegetables, people with livestock donated meat, and she had turned part of her house into a makeshift hospital, doing her best to deal with the injuries and illnesses that were such a part of life. She had also organized a system where people who were in need and unable to work got donated enough food and fuel to keep alive.

So she was not disconcerted that someone wanted her. However, when she opened the door, she gasped in shock. "You!"

"Yes, it's me, Mrs. Everdeen. May I come in?"

Automatically, Mrs. Everdeen showed Rue into their home. "What brings you here, dear? How in the world did you get to our district?"

Rue said, in a mechanical monotone: "Hunger Games Victors are considered to be Capitol citizens, not citizens of their Districts. We're allowed to travel, although not encouraged to do so save when the Capitol wishes us to."

"Oh!" Mountain manners took over, and Mrs. Everdeen asked: "Would you like some refreshments, dear?"

Rue shook her head, as Prim came clattering down the stairs to see who had come. Prim's eyes went very wide. "You…you're the girl who was in the Games with my sister!" Rue nodded. Prim sat down beside her and took Rue's unresisting hand in both of hers. "Tell me…did she feel any pain? Did she suffer?" Prim's eyes filled with tears. "I have nightmares about her, suffering, in pain…"

"No, Prim, she didn't suffer, as far as I could tell. But that's not why I'm here." Suddenly, Rue had a knife in her hand, holding it by the blade. She held it out to the Everdeens. "I owe her a life. I've come to pay my debt." She held the knife's blade up to her throat, stretching her neck out. "Here I am. Kill me if you want to. I know you'd rather I'd died and Katniss had lived. This is all I can do."

Both Everdeens stared at her in horror, before Mrs. Everdeen reacted. A roundhouse slap sent the knife flying, as she gathered Rue into her arms. "Oh, darling! Don't ever think things like that! Katniss would never approve!" She held Rue tightly, her body shaking with sobs and her tears wetting the girl's hair, as Prim joined them in the embrace. Knowing that she was forgiven, that the Everdeens didn't hate her, got through to Rue, and for the first time in months, she let out her grief and shock, sobbing her heart out.

When they finally untangled themselves, Rue was looking more animated. "Mrs. Everdeen, would it be all right if I…visited Katniss' grave? Maybe laid some flowers on it?"

"Of course, dear!" A few minutes later, they were headed out toward the District 12 graveyard, with Rue carrying a big bunch of flowers picked from the Everdeens' garden.

They met some of the local people, who smiled and nodded at the Everdeens, and gave Rue slightly shocked stares before inclining their heads respectfully. Rue paid them no mind, walking with her eyes straight forward and dignity in every inch of her.

The District 12 graveyard was a peaceful place. Mockingjays sang in the yew trees around it, and in the center there was a large marble stone monument to all who had died in the coal mines without their bodies being recovered. The Everdeens glanced toward it, remembering Mr. Everdeen, whose name was one of the many inscribed on it.

Hunger Games Tributes occupied a corner by themselves; there was room for many more. Katniss' grave was beside Peeta Mellark's, and someone had tied a ribbon between their grave markers. Rue read the inscription on Katniss' stone:

_Katniss Everdeen_

"_The Girl on Fire" _

_Tribute, 74th Hunger Games_

_She loved her sister more than she loved her life._

Rue began to weep softly as she knelt and placed the flowers on the grave. They weren't the only ones; there were a good few other flowers there, in various stages of decay. Some of them bore the symbols of other Districts…Rue recognized the one for District 5, and another from District 9.

"Her story touched people," Mrs. Everdeen whispered. "We even got bouquets from the Capitol, if you can believe it."

"Oh, I can, Mrs. Everdeen," Rue murmured. "The Capitol people mostly aren't _bad_. The ones I met mostly struck me as very like little children. They're kept that way on purpose, I think." Then she addressed the gravestone:

"Katniss, if you can hear me, I want you to know that I'm so sorry you had to die; it wasn't my idea. When I get married, I'll name my daughter after you, as my way of thanking you for giving me my life."

"That would be lovely," Mrs. Everdeen whispered. "And I know she'd want you to live a long, long life. She didn't give your life back to you to have you throw it away."

"Thank you, Mrs. Everdeen." Rue stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees. "I have a good few hours before I have to board my train. Will you show me around this District?"

After Rue got on her train, people noticed that the Everdeens had some things they hadn't had before. Along with Lady, two more nanny goats and a young billy frolicked in the pen behind their house, and their larders were well-stocked. At the station, Prim hugged Rue goodbye, and made her promise to come back sometime so she could see the little goats she planned to breed.

THE END


End file.
